Trade tensions between the U.S. and China stalled a global recovery and are continuing to endanger investment and growth, the secretary general of the OECD warned Monday.

“We were in the middle of a recovery when all these decisions about trade started and not only did it stifle the recovery, it basically has produced the slowdown and the potential for greater damage is still there,” Angel Gurria told CNBC.

“Everybody is betting today… on a deal between China and the U.S. but the problem is that on the face of it the tensions are getting greater and, second, the problem – the spillover effect of this tension – is becoming more and more evident,” he told CNBC’s Joumanna Bercetche at the start of the OECD’s Spring Forum in Paris.